Panera Bread Case Study I. Executive Summary Panera Bread is one of the largest fast food restaurants offering value added service with high quality offerings. Its strategy is to provide a premium specialty bakery and café experience to urban workers and suburban dwellers. Besides this, unique menu with high focused on fresh artisan bread products, and the outstanding Panera’s bakery-cafe operations, signature bakery-cafe design, and the great bakery-cafe locations are major factors of Panera’s success. In addition, Franchising is a key component of Panera’s success.
Panera’s strategic approach to keep customers coming is; providing distinctive menu, signature café design, inviting ambience, operating systems, and unit location strategy. Panera Bread’s growth strategy was to capitalize on Panera’s market potential by opening both company-owned and franchised Panera Bread location as fast as was prudent. Competitive Strategy - Competitive approach; Panera Bread is doing Broad Differentiation Strategy. Panera Bread’s competitive strategy is providing quick service meal and a more aesthetically pleasing dining experience than that offered by traditional fast food restaurant to its’ targets. Providing better products in better environment with great service is Panera Bread’s competitive advantage.
I am a firm believer in the long-term merits of this dominant café bakery concept. Management's commitment to quality and brand building are stronger than ever, and should continue to help it attract consumers across a varied spectrum including those that are health conscious, time constrained, and value driven. Panera aligns very nicely with the investment thesis that fast food (and Fast Casual) operators will continue to outperform casual dining on the Big-3 consumer discretionary issues of
Chipotle has a well-defined and transparent advancement structure that encourages loyalty from part- and full-time employees, thus reducing turnover and training costs. Brand Identity is the second key factor. Chipotle recognizes the value in cultivating a dining experience that places ownership upon the customer, basically saying: "You know what you want, tell us what you'd like and we'll customize it to your specifications, as quickly as possible." Providing this highly customizable, affordable menu mostly consisting of whole foods is a cornerstone to the Chipotle experience. The final key factor is Ingredient Transparency.
In 1997, the bakery-cafés were renamed Panera Bread in markets outside of St Louis. The company’s business plan had worked very well and management concluded that it had a broad market appeal which could be rolled out nationwide. The management team quickly realized the potential of Panera Bread and its ability to flourish into one of the leading fast-casual restaurant chains in the country. As a result, there was a need for a more focused management team and greater financial resources. Since, it was not in their best interest to continue with both Au Bon Pain and Panera Bread,
How strongly positioned are the company’s brands in each segment of the industry? What does a 9-cell industry attractiveness/business strength matrix displaying J. M. Smucker’s business units look like? By acquiring the specific brands that they chose, they have a consistent brand lineup. I believe they have a great image and by only choosing brands in a certain niche of the market, they were able to keep their somewhat breakfast-oriented appeal and expand their company.
Going to McDonalds for dinner is much more easier than making a filling meal for a family or for yourself. It is easy to stop by a small window and order from a limited list which you know will taste the same every time and will satisfy your appetite. It is quick and the minimum expenditure of effort. The second term, calculability, focuses on the quantity rather than quality. An example is the breakfast sandwich, this relates to the term “quicker is better.” The breakfast sandwich is a combination of all breakfast food in between two biscuits; it is simpler and quicker unlike a breakfast with all the basic portions set out.
Besides needing to overcome the obstacle of showing that pizza is not bad for you as long as you do not over indulge, there was the delivery drivers safety, and the cost of ingredients raising that Papa John’s needed to overcome. Along with these obstacles there was the growing trend of pizzerias including Dominos and Little Caesars that would offer low cost pizza and high quality, which increased rivalry and competition in the industry. Through all of this obstacles and the competitive industry Papa John’s was able to rank third place in the industry and expand not only nationally but also internationally. Question One The first question asks, “What are the strategically relevant factors of the macro-environment that affect the attractiveness of the U.S. pizza industry? Specifically, are general and industry economic conditions and socio-cultural factors favorable to Papa John’s International business situation?” In regards to the sociocultural economics, the trend toward a healthier life style played a factor that could have been seen as unfavorable to Papa John’s.
According to Pearce and Robinson (2011) by thoroughly developing and exploiting its expertise in a narrowly defined competitive arena, the company achieves superiority over competitors that try to master a greater number of product and market combinations. As stated in their Declaration of Interdependence: “Whole Foods Market is a dynamic leader in the quality food business. We are a mission-driven company that aims to set the standards of excellence for food retailers. We continually experiment and innovate in order to raise our retail standards”(Whole Foods Market, 2012). Through identified niche markets, WFM can leverage some of their customary strong points by recognizing innovated uses for current goods using market penetration.
Panera Bread has achieved many great things as a company and for the community with their charity work, and this should be mentioned in the vision statement. Their mission statement needs to focus on their current goals of growth and profitability. Strategic and Financial Objectives According to the case, management’s long-term objective and strategic intent was to make Panera Bread a nationally recognized brand name and to be the dominant restaurant operator in upscale, quick-service dining. Panera’s growth strategy was to capitalize on their market potential by opening both company-owned and franchised Panera Bread locations as fast was prudent, and to continue doing so throughout the recession. Competition Panera Bread’s menu, store design and ambiance, and unit